Matt Brittin, Google's UK director, said today the search engine giant has shared $5bn (£3.3bn) with publishers through its contextual ads program, AdSense, in the last year.

Speaking at the FIPP World Magazine Congress in London today, Brittin hit back at media industry critics of Google, who argue that the US internet giant has built its hugely successful search advertising business on the back of other companies' content without providing them with adequate financial compensation.

He said Google sent about a billion clicks each month to newspaper and magazine publishers' websites and the search giant wanted to help digital content businesses build audience and find new ways to make money online.

Brittin added that digital content presented a huge opportunity for publishers in the UK because it was one of the advanced markets online, with consumers spending a third of their leisure time on the web.

He said that since 2005, the number of searches on Google for "magazines" had risen 225% and that searches for "glossies and tabloids" had increased by 458%.

Brittin pledged to work with publishers to improve their digital revenues and help close the gap between print and online advertising returns.

Google has often been accused by publishers of hijacking online advertising since the search giant launched its AdSense service in 2003 allowing publishers to serve its contextually targeted ads on their websites.

He outlined a number of strategies to help publishers succeed in building revenue in the face of a worsening economic situation.

Brittin called on publishers to learn lessons from ecommerce sites to improve their understanding of their consumers and engagement with them.

Internet users no longer wanted to be passive online, he said, adding that Google's tools and technologies could be "part of the solution".

"In a world where everyone is a publisher what is needed more than ever is editing skills and brands that help people understand the quality of the content and help them to find the content that is useful. I think there is a big opportunity here," he told the audience of international magazine executives in London.

"The challenge is the model of monetisation online and figuring out how to make that economically viable in the same way as your print products are. Those models are lagging consumer behaviour and all of us are trying to keep up with the consumer."

He said publishers should look to use technology to help their digital publications move at a greater pace and keep up with consumer demand, but that while it could help, Google could not offer all the necessary solutions.

"We think the [economic] slowdown will accelerate consumer adoption of technology, it will speed up consumer change and behaviour, speed up change in how competitors compete for attention and Google doesn't have any of the answers," Brittin added.

"We are a technology company, not media company. We are run by a team of scientists and technologists, so what we focus on is understanding how people are using technology and trying to make technology find what they want and to help publishers make money online."

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